The presence of this Portuguese group in the Holy War did not go unnoticed by the British terrorism specialists. Expresso talked to four researchers in London:
They all highlight the power of the Islamic State (IS) propaganda machine, which differs radically from the amateur Al-Qaeda videos of the 1990s. The overwhelming majority of Islamic State videos are produced and distributed through the Al Hayat Media Center, set up last summer as the official outlet for jihadist propaganda, the Al-Itisam Establishment for Media Production.
Among its most recent products are videos, pamphlets and even an English language magazine. The analysts are unanimous in considering that behind this smoothly functioning machine, there are various media specialists with backgrounds in video production, journalism and webdesign.
They include the German rapper Deso Dog, the artistic name of Denis Mamadou Gerhard Cuspert, who had some hip hop hits in Germany before joining Islamic State. The German artist, photographed alongside Fábio somewhere in Syria, has clearly mastered the language of such means.
In the most recent images of the decapitation of Syrian soldiers and Western hostages, there is a more modern 'made in MTV' aesthetic: slow motion, dramatic soundtracks and all types of post-production, including the sound of hearts beating and deep breathing overlaying the scenes of carnage.
In London, Abdullah Al Andalusi, aged 34, son of Portuguese parents, a speaker on Islamic affairs and a spokesperson for the community in the British capital and one of the people who is now most closely followed due to the meteoric ascent of the extremists in Syria and Iraq. The activist, who prefers to speak English that he now masters better than Portuguese, considers that there has been excessive attention paid by the media to Islamic State, which might also explain in part the attraction this organisation seems to hold over many Muslims:
“These young, recent converts to Islam, as is the case with the Portuguese, believe that Islamic State is the only group in Syria that defends their interests and calling into question the interests of the West. They are wrong and many end up feeling defrauded at the end of a few months fighting in Syria.”
In common with the three security specialists Expresso talked to, Al Andalusi – who shares his surname with many of the Portuguese extremists given that this is the Arabic name adopted by many originally from the Iberian Peninsula – also holds no doubts that many of the young radicals fighting for Islamic State are the sons of well-heeled families without any social or financial problems, with higher levels of education and having never had any problems with law. However, the majority live in constant conflict with the values prevailing in the Western world that they reject in favour of the most extremist dogmas of Islam. This is the reason they pay for a ticket to Turkey or Bulgaria and then travel from there by car or on foot to a country that they only know through the news report.
Londonistan
In Whitechapel market, or by the mosques of Walthamstow and Leyton, there are as many women wearing the niqab or the Islamic veil as there are walking around uncovered. Such is the number of Muslims residing in East London – above all immigrants from Pakistan, Somalia, Nigeria or Bangladesh – that the area has become known as ‘Londonistan’.
The term has been applied pejoratively by the British media for various years. The French had first used such terminology in the 1990s to baptise the multi-ethnic zones in the capital with this designation, after various police operations in Paris and as well as in Brussels (Belgium) having proven the linkage between these areas and extremists in these three countries.
The conservative writer and journalist Melanie Phillips rendered the term semi-official following her 2006 best-seller, “Londonistan: How Britain is Creating a Terror State Within”, written in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the British capital. Her thesis, backed by the British intelligence services is that the attacks made by the radical groups starkly revealed the weaknesses in Western secret services. The promotion, recruitment and support for terrorism on British soil had gone unscrutinised by MI5 and MI6 distracted by other domestic affairs.
In the multi-ethnic East, the population is overwhelmingly peaceful and above all working class. However, in amongst the community, there are some of London’s most extreme Islamic movements as is the case with Al-Muhajiroun (The Emigrants), led by Anjem Choudary.
This preacher, who appears on television pronouncing support for bomb attacks on London, Sharia (Islamic law) for all the United Kingdom and even the most bloodthirsty acts of the Islamic State guerrilla fighters, was arrested in September for conspiring to commit acts of terrorism – and released a day later on bail.
‘Yummy Yummy’, the sweet shop run by his brother in Whitechapel, was the target for searches. Scotland Yard suspected that that small outlet, which sold ‘halal’ sweets, chocolates and candies (the type allowed to Muslims), was one of the meeting points chosen by the radicals. However, the investigation team did not find anything that incriminated Choudary.
The detentions of alleged Jihad supporters has, however, risen in recent months in 2014, in London but also in Portsmouth, Birmingham and Cardiff. In September, the Muslim leaders in the British capital publicly called for the community to cooperate with the authorities in the combat against terrorism. The suspicions over this minority have cast a shadow over the image of the community as a whole.
Celso, Edgar, Fábio, Patrício and Sandro are not the only Portuguese volunteers in the Holy War. The secret services guarantee that there are between 15 and 20 jihadists with Portuguese passports, with the overwhelming majority Luso-descendents. Ângela, Fábio’s wife, daughter of Portuguese emigrants in the Netherlands, fled Utrecht in August. Mikael Batista, aged 23, and Mickaël dos Santos, aged 22, swapped the outskirts of Paris for Raqqa one year ago.
The two friends set off in 2013, without any contacts, on an adventure in which the only certainty they held was that they wanted to fight with* the Islamic State guerrilla fighters. Santos was the first to arrive in Turkey by plane. In February, he landed in Istanbul. Mikael Batista arrived six months later in August. They entered Syria by car. And today, in Raqqa, they remain close; brothers in arms.
The Others
Mikael Batista, who was interviewed by Expresso in September, holds dual nationality: he is Portuguese like his parents, who were born and raised in the district of Vila Real, in a Transmontano village; and French where he was raised and to where his parents emigrated many long years ago. His parents know where he is and what he is doing. However, he does not like talking about that. He knows his option made them sad. He knows that he shall probably never see them again. Behind, he left his Parisian university where he was taking a Sports degree. He boxed, did martial arts as well as acrobatic gymnastics.
Mikael Batista travelled with Mickaël dos Santos, his friend from Champigny-sur-Marne, in the suburbs of Paris. On his Twitter account, one of the most active of all the Francophone jihadists (the largest Western contingent in Syria), features pictures of the decapitated heads of Syrian soldiers. His war name is Abou Uthman and he talks a great deal about Islamic radicalism, violence, mutilations, death. He has a legion of fans due to the atrocities he posts online; and just as many enemies and equally committed that struggle to see him banned from such social networks. He as frequently gets called a hero as a psychopath, an example to be followed and a bloodthirsty monster.
Sporting a long and bushy beard, he almost always appears wielding weapons of various calibres and sizes, from revolvers to rocket launchers. In the most controversial photograph, Santos appears posed like a footballer: but the ball he looks as though he is about to kick is a head. After hundreds of reports on the social network, his Twitter account was suspended in August. However, not for long and he is already back tweeting.
In November, Abou Uthman was identified by the French secret services as appearing in one of the most violent Islamic State videos, to the right of the ringleader, the British Jihadi John. The Luso-descendent was allegedly among the 17 jihadists who killed 16 Syrian soldiers and the North American Peter Kassig and appears with his face uncovered and wearing a black beret. He also has a long beard. However, Santos himself denied on Twitter having participated in the slaughter. Furthermore, his mother, a Portuguese emigrant, went on television to say that this man was not her son. However, according to the French press, it was the Portuguese woman herself who had identified her eldest son in the questionings carried out by the police. In the aforementioned television interview, the woman guarantees that she was coerced by the authorities into identifying him in the video.
In addition to Mikael Batista and Mickaël dos Santos, the French and Portuguese secret services have another seven Luso-descendents fighting in Syria. One of them is Omar, a youth whose Portuguese mother has done everything to try and rescue him from the hands of Islamic State. She has already been to Turkey twice, next to the border with Syria. But Omar never appeared. The other is the rapper from Figueira da Foz, an emigrant to Luxembourg, Steve Duarte. He set off for Syria this year. He now works in the machine churning out Islamic State propaganda.
Abu Osama Al-Faransi, the war name adopted by José Parente, another Luso-descendent with French roots. The son of emigrants from Tondela, he left Toulouse in the south of France to join the Jihad. He died on 22nd May in a suicide mission carried out in Iraq. On that Sunday, he took a homemade bomb inside a car with a single objective: to detonate it near Iraqi military installations, next to a flour factory in the town of Umm Al-Amad, on the outskirts of Baghdad. The mission was fully completed and dozens, in the majority civilians, either died or were seriously wounded.