The sun is streaming in the window. It is 7.20 on Saturday morning and I am in deep thought, thinking about an astonishing t.v. interview I watched earlier this week. I admit that although I am “aware” of the situation in Syria and the Middle East, I really don’t understand the complexities of it. However, I think I have found a recently published book which hopefully will clarify things.
The man being interviewed was Jurgen Todenhofer who has written a book called My Journey into the Heart of Terror. The title has an extension as in (perhaps) Ten days with Isis. This may be wrong as I missed the whole title as I was caught up in the interview. Jurgen Todenhofer was the judge in a high profile terrorist trial in the 1980’s and he has been allowed access to Isis fighters and he has his own very clear view of these predominantly young men and their beliefs. However he has no idea why he has been accepted.
He made several points which made perfect sense. Close the Borders with Turkey, stop Afghanistan sending in weapons and stop intervention from the west. When he was in Afghanistan there were 100 terrorists, now there are 100,000. There are hundreds of thousand more Isis sympathisers than we think. If the Sunis had been left to deal with it, Isis would have been destroyed. But what was more chilling was his reference to theses young fighters. They are completely brainwashed and have no idea of remorse or compassion. On a childish level,they love being on television and they should not be given a voice.
Astonishing! As I wrote earlier I am only getting to grips with this but I have thought about this for the best part of a week and will buy the book, certainly. Will it be an enjoyable read? Probably not! But it might bring me greater understanding.
Leave a Reply