Souad Mekhennet

"The journalist who broke the "Jihadi John" story draws on her personal experience to bridge the gap between the Muslim world and the West and explain the rise of Islamic radicalism Souad Mekhennet has lived her entire life between worlds. The daughter of a Turkish mother and a Moroccan father, she was born and educated in Germany and has worked for several American newspapers. Since the 9/11 attacks she has reported stories among the most dangerous members of her religion; when she is told to come alone to an interview, she never knows what awaits at her destination. In this compelling and evocative book, Mekhennet seeks to answer the question, "What is in the minds of these young jihadists, and how can we understand and defuse it?" She has unique and exclusive access into the world of jihad and sometimes her reporting has put her life in danger. We accompany her from Germany to the heart of the Muslim world -- from the Middle East to North Africa, from Sunni Pakistan to Shia Iran, and the Turkish/ Syrian border region where ISIS is a daily presence. She then returns to Europe, first in London, where she uncovers the identity of the notorious ISIS executioner "Jihadi John," and then in Paris and Brussels, where terror has come to the heart of Western civilization. Too often we find ourselves unable to see the human stories behind the headlines, and so Mekhennet - with a foot in many different camps - is the ideal guide to take us where no Western reporter can go. Her story is a journey that changes her life and will have a deep impact on us as well"--

My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad

I Was Told to Come Alone

Eine Reporterin hinter den Fronten des Jihad

Nur wenn du allein kommst

طلب مني المجيء وحدي

“I was told to come alone. I was not to carry any identification, and would have to leave my cell phone, audio recorder, watch, and purse at my hotel. . . .” For her whole life, Souad Mekhennet, a reporter for The Washington Post who was born and educated in Germany, has had to balance the two sides of her upbringing – Muslim and Western. She has also sought to provide a mediating voice between these cultures, which too often misunderstand each other. In this compelling and evocative memoir, we accompany Mekhennet as she journeys behind the lines of jihad, starting in the German neighborhoods where the 9/11 plotters were radicalized and the Iraqi neighborhoods where Sunnis and Shia turned against one another, and culminating on the Turkish/Syrian border region where ISIS is a daily presence. In her travels across the Middle East and North Africa, she documents her chilling run-ins with various intelligence services and shows why the Arab Spring never lived up to its promise. She then returns to Europe, first in London, where she uncovers the identity of the notorious ISIS executioner “Jihadi John,” and then in France, Belgium, and her native Germany, where terror has come to the heart of Western civilization. Mekhennet’s background has given her unique access to some of the world’s most wanted men, who generally refuse to speak to Western journalists. She is not afraid to face personal danger to reach out to individuals in the inner circles of Al Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, and their affiliates; when she is told to come alone to an interview, she never knows what awaits at her destination. Souad Mekhennet is an ideal guide to introduce us to the human beings behind the ominous headlines, as she shares her transformative journey with us. Hers is a story you will not soon forget.

za linią Dżihadu

Powiedzieli, żebym przyszła sama

Nicholas Kulish

From the New York Times reporters who first uncovered S.S. officer Aribert Heim’s secret life in Egypt comes the never-before-told story of the most hunted Nazi war criminal in the world. Dr. Aribert Heim worked at the Mauthausen concentration camp for only a few months in 1941 but left a devastating mark. According to the testimony of survivors, Heim euthanized patients with injections of gasoline into their hearts. He performed surgeries on otherwise healthy people. Some recalled prisoners' skulls set out on his desk to display perfect sets of teeth. Yet in the chaos of the postwar period, Heim was able to slip away from his dark past and establish himself as a reputable doctor and family man in the resort town of Baden-Baden. His story might have ended there, but for certain rare Germans who were unwilling to let Nazi war criminals go unpunished, among them a police investigator named Alfred Aedtner. After Heim fled on a tip that he was about to be arrested, Aedtner turned finding him into an overriding obsession. His quest took him across Europe and across decades, and into a close alliance with legendary Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. The hunt for Heim became a powerful symbol of Germany's evolving attitude toward the sins of its past, which finally crested in a desire to see justice done at almost any cost. As late as 2009, the mystery of Heim’s disappearance remained unsolved. Now, in The Eternal Nazi, Nicholas Kulish and Souad Mekhennet reveal for the first time how Aribert Heim evaded capture--living in a working-class neighborhood of Cairo, praying in Arabic, beloved by an adopted Muslim family--while inspiring a manhunt that outlived him by many years. It is a brilliant feat of historical detection that illuminates a nation’s dramatic reckoning with the crimes of the Holocaust.

From Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim

The Eternal Nazi

Du måste komma ensam, sa de. Jag fick inte ha några id-handlingar och skulle lämna mobilen, diktafonen, klockan och handväskan på mitt hotell ... I hela sitt yrkesliv har Washington Post-reportern Souad Mekhennet behövt förhålla sig till sin muslimska bakgrund och det faktum att hon är född och uppvuxen mitt i Europa. Som journalist har hon försökt skildra de skilda perspektiven i kampen för och emot radikal jihadism. Hon har fått intervjua militanta islamister, inte för att de håller med henne, utan för att de anser att hon ger en rättvisande bild av dem. Men hon berättar också med stor inlevelse om hur deras offer drabbas. I denna självbiografiska reportagebok skriver hon om möten och händelser hon varit med om, rör sig mellan Tyskland och Libanon, Irak och London, Pakistan och Paris, träffar talibaner, al-Qaidafolk och personer från ISIS ledning. Hon berättar om hur hon avslöjade Jihadi Johns rätta identitet, fick kontakt med släktingar till Bataclanterroristerna och om hur hennes egen släkt drabbats av sådana vanvettsdåd.

Du måste komma ensam

Man nannte ihn „Doktor Tod“ und „Schlächter von Mauthausen“. Der SS-Arzt Dr. Aribert Heim war über Jahrzehnte der meistgesuchte NS-Verbrecher. 2009 gelang es den Journalisten Nicholas Kulish und Souad Mekhennet, seine Hinterlassenschaft in Kairo aufzuspüren. In ihrem spannend geschriebenen Buch verweben sie die Geschichte von Leben und Flucht Heims mit dem Bericht über die lange, fieberhafte Jagd nach ihm zu einem zeithistorischen Krimi. Aribert Heim war nur wenige Monate in einem Konzentrationslager stationiert, aber in dieser Zeit wurde er für seine unvorstellbar grausamen „Behandlungen“ von Gefangenen berüchtigt. Nach dem Krieg führte er – trotz Fahndung – zunächst ein bürgerliches Leben als Gynäkologe und Familienvater. Kurz vor seiner Verhaftung tauchte er 1962 in Kairo unter, baute sich unter arabischem Namen, als Muslim und geliebter „Onkel“ einer Kairoer Familie, eine neue Existenz auf und verstarb dort 1992. Unterdessen lief die weltweite Suche nach der Nummer eins auf der Liste des Simon-Wiesenthal-Centers auf Hochtouren. Die Entdeckung Heims in Kairo und die Rekonstruktion seines Lebens und seiner Flucht sind ein detektivisches und journalistisches Meisterstück, das über den Einzelfall hinaus erhellt, wie die Fluchtwege der NS-Verbrecher funktionierten und warum die intensive Fahndung so spät in Gang kam.

Souad Mekhennet

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