Behind Islamic State Lines

According to Abu Qatadah, those who do not convert will be killed. ‘150 million, 200 million, 500 million. The number doesn’t make any difference to us.’ Photograph: © Frederic Todenhöfer 2016

Jürgen Todenhöfer, The Guardian: Into the heart of terror: behind Isis lines

The German writer Jürgen Todenhöfer was the first western journalist allowed to enter Isis-controlled Syria and Iraq – and to return safely. In an extract from his book, he describes what he saw in Raqqa and Mosul, and the chilling moment he realised that his angry, masked driver was one of the world’s most-wanted men.

Sunday 7 December 2014

Abu Qatadah, a German-born Muslim convert, who has brokered our visit to the Islamic State, is almost as wide as he is tall, with a thick, reddish-brown beard. My photographer son Frederic and I load our bags into the bed of the white pickup Qatadah and his driver arrived in. The driver’s head and face are so thoroughly wrapped with a large grey shawl that only his eyes and the contours of his nose are visible. He murmurs a greeting in English in a strikingly rhythmic accent. For security reasons, we can’t use the main roads. The drive to Raqqa takes more than three hours.

Qatadah claims business is booming in Isis. Almost all the shops are open and lots of goods are being sold, above all at the markets. We notice the new construction. “In places that are not being bombed, life goes on as normal,” Qatadah tells us. Then he gives us a short lecture on Isis’s version of sharia.

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Previous Post: The Islamic State Is Preparing The 'Largest Religious Cleansing In History' (December 23, 2014)

WNU Editor: Jürgen Todenhöfer observations are out of date (he was there in December 2014). Raqqa and Mosul are being squeezed by everyone .... and while I am not there, I suspect that life right now must be very hard for everyone.