When you watch it, you may feel a burning desire to reach through the television screen and strangle the little bastard...(I certainly did)...
If you have Xfinity cable you can see it in On Demand; it's also on YouTube:New primetime special from Clarissa Ward premieres Friday, March 31 at 10pm ET
on CNN/U.S. and CNN International
With his blue eyes, brown hair and beaming smile, young Michael Delefortrie looked every inch the angelic altar boy.
But fast forward twenty years, and Michael had changed his name to Younnes, traded his Christian faith for Islam, and the sleepy Belgian suburb he’d grown up in for the front lines of ISIS’ war in Syria.
Now, back in Belgium, he still expresses open support for the group’s warped ideology and says he wishes he could return to the group’s self-proclaimed Islamic State.
“I regret coming back,” he told me. “I want to live under the caliphate.”[I say put a GPS chip in his ass, give him a ticket back, and send in a drone]
Despite his shocking words, the most striking thing about the 28-year-old is how utterly unremarkable he appears. The first time we meet, in a café in the port city of Antwerp, he wears a hooded sweatshirt, sneakers and jeans (cuffed just above the ankle in a style that emulates the Prophet — though most people wouldn’t even notice).
He doesn’t shake hands with me, as a woman, but he is polite, makes eye contact, apologizes for being late, cracks jokes and even flirts a little with my young producer.
And while he dismisses his own nationality — “I’m not Belgian. I am Muslim” — and wants to see Western democracy replaced by the strictest form of Sharia law, the returned ISIS fighter is more than happy to accept welfare checks from the Belgian government.
It is estimated that at least 540 Belgians have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight jihad. Per capita, that is more than any other country in Western Europe. ISIS: Behind the Mask is the story of why they go and what happens when they come home.
Belgium is also is one of 26 European countries with open borders that allow people to move and work freely, making it easy for terrorists to cross multiple borders possibly unchecked.
And while Belgium has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the West, Ward discovers just how easy it is to purchase an assault rifle. After a few phone calls and secret meetings, she is blindfolded and taken to a small-time drug dealer who shows her an AK-47 – similar to the ones used in the Paris attacks in November 2015 – with a black market value of about $3,000.
ISIS fighters returning from Syria pose a unique challenge for Belgian authorities as they try to work out who comes back to live and who comes back to kill. Delefortrie says he has no intention of attacking Europe but is instead focused on the next generation, even naming one of his sons “Osama” after his “hero”, Osama bin Laden.
“The ideology is Islam…it’s already here, you cannot hide,” says Delefortrie. “We are Muslims who are dreaming of a caliphate. It will happen. It’s a promise of Allah.”
It's somewhat misleading, because of the 540 people with Belgian citizenship referenced in the story that have gone to fight for ISIS, ethnic Europeans like this piece of shit are very much the minority...(Most...like the terrorists involved in last year's coordinated attacks on Brussels Airport and the city's subway system ...are second generation Mideast immigrants...)
But it still provides some intriguing insights; I recommend it...
ETA:
I recommend it provided you have a strong stomach...
A lot of what comes out of Mr. POS' mouth is extremely offensive...
