Once Upon a Jihad

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Alex Perry. Once Upon a Jihad

Contents

1. Preface: January 2015

1. Once upon a time

2. The meaning of Jihad

3. Storytelling

4. A thorny truth

5. Deepening divisions

6. A five-star jihad

7. Joining the righteous path

8. A divine restorative

9. Delusions

10. He got shuhada

11. Fictions

12. The one winner

13. He made it look cool

1. Glossary

2. About the author

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The murder of journalists, cartoonists and police officers at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, and the ensuing events in and around the city, focussed international attention not just on France but also the question of what it is that attracts some people of Muslim heritage (mostly young men, but sometimes young women too) raised in secular, western societies, to take up radical causes and commit criminal, violent acts at home and abroad.

I researched and wrote this book during the second half of 2014. Publication has been brought forward in response to last week’s events in Paris. The main focus is Ifthekar Jaman, a self-selected British-born enthusiast with no training who travelled to Syria at his own instigation and at his own expense, and died there within a year. There are some similarities between his early life and that of Cherif Kouachi, 32, the French jihadi who, with his 34-year-old brother Said, shot dead 12 people at the offices of the satirical magazine in Paris. But in other ways Kouachi conforms more closely to the pattern of a militant proactively recruited and trained by others using techniques, which are also examined in this book.

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A glossary of definitions of the Islamic phrases used, particularly in reported interviews, can be found at the rear of the book.

Alex Perry

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