‘BRO, IMAGINE BULLETS FLYING PAST YOUR HEAD... IT’S THE PLACE TO BE’
1 THE CALL TO ARMS
‘Bro, just imagine you go to the battlefield, you see bullets flying over your head, you see a brother on your right get shot, another on your left... get blown up. It’s the place to be, yani [I mean], if you want your iman [faith] to go high.’
‘Sometimes you run across a field, and then you’ve got a tank shooting at you, but it misses you, sometimes a tank’s chasing after you, you are like in a dead-end, and the tank stops, turns around, and drives off, and you are like: “Yo man... why is the tank scared of me?”’
2 THE ROUTE TO SYRIA
‘Come Turkey then buy a new phone and SIM then msg me I’ll get u in inshallah [God willing]’
‘You can come straight to France or... Italy, Paris, wherever, from there, get a flight to Istanbul.’
‘I don’t personally know the brothers who are in Istanbul, they speak maybe broken English… but they’ve been doing it for quite sometime… basically they are gonna pick you from a destination and take you to the border between Shaam [Syria] and Turkey inshallah.’
3 HOW TO AVOID DETECTION
‘And once you are in Turkey, anywhere, literally anywhere, buy a new phone, buy a new SIM... message me … and I’ll bring you in inshallah.’
‘Also akhi [my brother], I strongly advise you delete this number cos remember my number is being tracked.’
‘Buy a turkcell SIM card and a phone which has whatsApp... and download surespot [encrypted instant messaging service]. Stay in Istanbul... but keep indoors.’
4 WHAT TO TAKE WITH YOU
‘Just come to Istanbul, that will be fine. You don’t need to bring anything, just bring enough cash, that’s all, so about, I’d say about $600, $700.’
‘As for the type of clothes... you don’t need to bring much, you get everything here. The only thing you don’t get is quality stuff... don’t fuss about it.’
5 THE LAST CHILLING APPEAL
‘Akhi [my brother] come. If u believe it’s fard [Islamically obligatory] upon u then come.’