ISIS held French journalist Nicolas Hénin hostage for about 10 months. Hénin was released and has now spoken out on his 10 months of hell being held captive by the Islamic State militants.
During his time of captivity he met several different members of the group, both high-ups such as Jihadi John and the lower part of the hierarchy.
“They present themselves to the public as superheroes, but away from the camera are a bit pathetic in many ways: street kids drunk on ideology and power. In France we have a saying – stupid and evil. I found them more stupid than evil. That is not to understate the murderous potential of stupidity,” Hénin said.
The mental and physical terror Hénin went through is unbelievable. The ISIS militants would play games with the hostages, telling them that they were to be released soon. Then after a while the soldiers would tell their captives that they would instead execute them.
Hénin told how ISIS was afraid of a united front to fight them, which is the reason the Islamic extremist group is searching for more members to help them in their horrific terrorist attacks around the world.
“While we are trying to destroy ISIS, what of the 500,000 civilians still living and trapped in Raqqa. What of their safety? What of the very real prospect that by failing to think this through, we turn many of them into extremists,” Hénin said. The French journalist is afraid that the bombings killing civilians in Raqqa will turn more Muslims into extremists.
By being at unity world wide, we might be able to fight ISIS over time.
Image via Flickr/Day Donaldson, resized
