London
bombings of 2005
Jihadi John and
Lower Saxony
Macedonia
Macedonian immigrants
Madrid, bombings of 2004
Mahmoud, Mohamad
Mahmoud (friend of father)
Mahvish (friend)
Malawi
Malek (German taxi driver)
Mali
Maliki, Nouri al-
Management of Savagery, The (Zarqawi)
Maqdisi, Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-
Marwan (Egyptian intelligence officer)
Marwan (Jordanian journalist)
Masri, Abu Hamza al-
Masri, Aischa el-
Masri, Khaled el-
CIA report on
Masri, Khalid al-
Massoud, Ahmed Shah
Mecca
siege of 1979
Mejjati, Abdulkarim al-
Mejjati, Adam
Mejjati, Fatiha al-
Mejjati, Ilyas
Mekhennet, Abdelkader (paternal grandfather)
Mekhennet, Aydanur (mother)
Mekhennet, Boujema (father)
Mekhennet, Fatma (sister)
Mekhennet, Hannan (sister)
Mekhennet, Hicham (brother)
Mekhennet, Zahra (father’s half-sister)
Meknes, Morocco
Merkel, Angela
Meryam (German convert to Islam)
MI5 (British intellegence)
Millennium Plots
Miller, Greg
Miriam (Jewish friend in Morocco)
Mitko (father of Pero)
Molenbeek neighborhood
Molins, François
Möllin, Germany, arson vs. Turkish families
Moroccan consulate
Moroccan embassy, Brussels
Moroccan field hosital
Moroccan immigrants
Belgium and
Germany and
Hamburg and
Paris and
Paris attacks of 2015 and
Moroccan police
Morocco
Arab Spring and
family and childhood in
French colonialism and
Libya and
refugee crisis and
Sunni Islam and
war of independence and
Moses
Mosque Council (al-Quds mosque, Hamburg)
Moss, Eve
Moss, Michael
Mossad
Mosul
Motassadeq, Mounir el-
Mubarak, Hosni
Muhammad, Prophet
cartoons of
succession of, and Sunni-Shia conflict
wives of
Muhammad, Mr. (Egyptian intelligence)
Muhammad (Bahraini student)
mujahideen
Mukhabarat al-Jaish (Egyptian army intelligence)
Multikulturhaus Islamic center (Neu-Ulm)
Mumbai attacks of 2008
Munich
Olympia shopping center attacks of 2016
Olympics attacks of 1972
Munther (driver)
Muslim Brotherhood
Muslims. See Islam; Shia; Sunni; and specific nationalities
Mustafa (Palestinian)
Mustafa (Syrian refugee)
Naciria, Algeria
Nahr al-Bared refugee camp
Najaf
revolt of 1918
Namibia
Naseer (Iraqi stringer)
Nasrallah, Hassan
Nasser, Gamal Abdel
National Security Agency (NSA)
Nazis
Netherlands
Neu-Ulm mosque
New York
CIA rendition and
train tunnels plot of 2006
New York Times
Nice, Bastille day attacks of 2016
Nikolaus, Saint
Nixon, Richard M.
Nonoo, Houda
North Africa, refugees and
North African immigrants
North African Islamists
Northern Alliance
Norway, right-wing terror attacks of 2011
NPR (radio network)
Obama, Barack
oil-for-food program
Omar, Mullah
Omar, Sunni caliph
Oslo Accord (1993)
Ottoman Empire
Pakistan
drone strikes in
Pakistani army
Pakistani immigrants
Bahrain and
Germany and
Palestine
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
Palestinian refugee camps
Palestinians
Paris
Bataclan attacks of 2015
Charlie Hebdo attacks of 2015
Pasha, Ahmad Shuja
Pearl, Daniel
Pero (friend’s nephew)
Petraeus, David
Phantom (high school magazine)
PKK (Kurdish separatist group)
Poland
polygamy
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Powell, Colin
Prague
Pulitzer Prize
Purdy, Matthew
Qatar
Quetta
Qureshi, Asim
Rabat, Morocco
Rabin, Yitzhak
racism and discrimination
radicalization of youth
Rafidain Center
Rahman, Atiyah Abd al-
Rajab, Sameera
Ranya (Jordanian stringer)
Raqqa, Syria
Ra’s Ajdir border post
Raz, Guy
Red Army Faction
Red Crescent
Red Cross
Redford, Robert
Rendezvous in Germany (radio show)
Reuters
Rezaian, Jason
right-wing terrorism
Rohde, David
Romania
Romanian immigrants
Rubaie, Ayyub al- (Abu Azrael)
Sabiha (cousin’s wife)
Sadiqqi, Ruqqaya (paternal grandmother)
Sadr, Muqtada al-
Saffar, Rula al-
Saidi, Laid
Saidi, Leena (Beirut stringer)
Saint-Denis, France, attacks of 2015
Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC)
Salafists
Salah, Ahmad. See Abu Anas
Salah (Tunisian man)
Salman, Sheikh Ali
Samarra, Askari mosque bombing of 2006
Saudi Arabia
Grand Mosque takeover of 1979
Iran and
Molenbeek and
Saudi Arabian antiterrorism police
Saudi intelligence
Sautter, Claudia
Sayed, Ibrahim Sharif al-
Schleyer, Hanns-Martin
Schröder, Gerhard
Schumann, Mrs. (teacher)
Scots immigrants
secret prisons
sectarian conflicts. See also Shia; Sunni; and specific countries
secularism
September 11, 2001, attacks
9/11 Commission report
Serbia
Serbs
Serce (friend)
Seyam, Reda
Shadid, Anthony
shahada (pillar of Isalm)
Sharia law
Shashaa, Hesham (Abu Adam)
Shehhi, Marwan al-
Shia. See also Sunni-Shia conflict
Ahl al-Bayt and
Aisha and
Bahrain and
Hezbollah and
Iraq and
Khadija and
Lebanon and
Najaf and
Sunni jihadis vs.
Zarqawi vs.
Shia militias
Shibh, Ramzi bin al-
shura
Si Abdullah (fqih or teacher)
Sidi Masoud commun
ity
Skopje, Macedonia
sleeper cells
Smiley, Shannon
Smith, Craig
Social Democratic Party (SPD, Germany)
Solingen, arson attacks of 1992
Somalia
Somali Muslims
Sonboly, David
Sonia (French Muslim)
Sotloff, Steven
South Asia
Southeast Asian laborers
Soviet Union
Afghanistan and
Spanish immigrants
Special Emergency Response and Assistance (SERA)
Special Olympics
Srebrenica massacre
Stade de France attacks of 2015
Steindamm neighborhood (Hamburg)
Stern
Strasbourg plot of 2000
suicide bombers
Sullivan, Kevin
Sunnah
Sunni
Ahl al-Bayt and
Abssi and U.S. war vs.
Aisha and
Al Qaeda and
Bahrain and
Iraq and
Jordan and
Khadija and
Lebanon and
Syria and
West and
Sunni-Shia conflict
Abssi and
Aisha and
Arab Spring and
Askari mosque bombing and
Bahrain and
Battle of Karbala and
Hezbollah and
history of
Iraq and
ISIS and
Middle Eastern leaders fuel
parents and
Zarqa boys and
Switzerland
Syria
CIA prisons and
European Muslim women and
Foley and
French colonialism and
Iraqi detainees and
Iraqi Shia and
ISIS and jihadists in
Jihadi John and
Jordanian captives in
mother’s ancestry and
Palestinian camps and
Paris attacks of 2015 and
protests of 2011 and
Shia militias in
Sunni militants and
Syrian immigrants, Bahrain
Syrian refugee crisis
Tahrir Square
Talal, Hassan bin, prince of Jordan
Taliban
Arab Spring and
Tanga, Kenya
Tanzania
U.S. embassy bombing in
terrorism, pre-9/11. See also specific incidents
Thailand
Tommy, Uncle
Torah
torture
CIA and
French colonialists and
help for victims of
“True History and Aims of the Shia, The” (video)
Tunisia
protests of 2011
reforms of 1960s
refugee crisis and
Tunisian fighters
Turkey
Arabs and
coup attempt of 2016
family background and
journalists and
refugee crisis and
Syrian border and
Turkish antiterrorism police
Turkish immigrants
Turkish intelligence
Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs
Twitter
Uka, Arid
Uka, Hastrid
Ulm, Germany
Umm Qasr, Iraq
unemployment
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom. See Britain
United Nations
Algiers bombing of
Baghdad bombing of
Bahrain and
High Commissioner for Refugees
Iraq weapons inspectors
Libya and
oil-for-food and
Powell speech to
Srebrenica and
United States
Afghanistan war (2001–14)
al-Ani and
Bahrain and
el-Masri and
First Gulf War and
Iraq war (2003–11)
Israel and
Muslim resentment vs.
Pakistan and
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
U.S. Army, Seventy-Fifth Ranger Regiment
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia
U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
U.S. Delta Force
U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. embassies
Algiers
Cairo
Tanzania and Kenya, bombings
Tehran hostage crisis of 1979–80
U.S. Fifth Fleet
U.S. intelligence. See also specific agencies
extraordinary rendition and
torture and
Zarqawi and
U.S. Navy SEALs
U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee
University of Bahrain
Urdu language
Van den Berghe, Annabell
Van Natta, Don
video brothers of Zarqa
Vienna
Villiers-sur-Marne, France
Vogel, Pierre
Wa’ad (National Democratic Action Society, Bahrain)
Wall Street Journal
War on Terror
Washington Post
Watergate affair
Waziristan
weapons of mass destruction
Weiss, Alfred
Weiss, Ruth
“Welcome to My World” (song)
WhatsApp
Why Men Love Bitches (Argov)
Winnenden, Germany, school killings of 2009
Wish Island, The (radio show)
women
Bahrain and
Iraq and
ISIS and
radicalization of
rights of
role of
Taliban and
Woodward, Bob
Workers’ Youth League, Oslo
World Trade Center. See also September 11, 2001, attacks
World War I
World War II
Yazid I, Umayyad caliph
Yemen
Yemeni immigrants
YouTube
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavian immigrants
Yugoslavian Muslims
Z (driver)
Zaatari camp
Zarqa, Jordan
Zarqawi, Abu Musab al- (formerly Ahmad Fadhil Nazzal al-Khalayleh)
ZDF (German public TV)
Zora, Aunt
Also by Souad Mekhennet
The Eternal Nazi: From Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim
(with Nicholas Kulish)
Die Kinder des Dschihad: Die neue Generation des islamistischen Terrors in Europa [The Children of Jihad: The New Generation of Islamic Terror in Europe]
(with Claudia Sautter and Michael Hanfeld)
Islam
(with Michael Hanfeld)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SOUAD MEKHENNET is a national security correspondent for the Washington Post, and she has reported on terrorism for The New York Times and other news organizations. She is the coauthor of three previous books and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and has also held fellowships at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Prologue: Meeting ISIS
Turkey, 2014
1 Stranger in a Strange Land
Germany and Morocco, 1978–93
2 The Hamburg Cell
Germany, 1994–2003
3 A Country with a Divided Soul
Iraq, 2003–4
4 A Call from Khaled el-Masri
Germany and Algeria, 2004–6
5 Even If I Die Today or Tomorrow
Lebanon, 2007
6 The Lost Boys of Zarqa
Jordan, 2007
7 The Value of a Life
Algeria, 2008
8 Guns and Roses
Pakistan, 2009
9 Mukhabarat
Egypt, 2011
10 This Is Not an Arab Spring
Germany and Tunisia, 2011
11 Threats
Bahrain, Iran, and Germany, 2011–13
12 Boys for the Caliphate
Germany, 2013
13 Brides for the Caliphate
Germany and France, 2014–15
14 The Search for an Islamist Beatle, or Finding Jihadi John
Britain, 2014–15
15 Terror Comes Home
Austria, France, and Belgium, 2015–16
Epilogue: The Deepest Cut
Germany and Morocco, 2016
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
Also by Souad Mekhennet
About the Author
Copyright
I WAS TOLD TO COME ALONE. Copyright © 2017 by Souad Mekhennet. All rights reserved. For information, address Henry Holt and Co., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.henryholt.com
Cover design: Rick Pracher
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Mekhennet, Souad, author.
Title: I was told to come alone: my journey behind the lines of jihad / Souad Mekhennet.
Description: New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2017.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016054740 | ISBN 9781627798976 (hardback) | ISBN 9781627798969 (electronic book)
Subjects: LCSH: Emwazi, Mohammed, –2015. | IS (Organization) | Jihad. | Terrorism—Middle East. | Mekhennet, Souad. | BISAC: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs. | POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Freedom & Security / Terrorism. | RELIGION / Islam / General.
Classification: LCC HV6433.I722 I8562 2017 | DDC 363.3250956—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016054740
e-ISBN 9781627798969
First Edition: June 2017
Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].
I Was Told to Come Alone Page 41
