Abu Rumaysah, the prominent British ISIS supporter who fled to Syria last year, has released a “Lonely Planet-style” travel booklet outlining what daily life is like in the “Islamic State.”
In the booklet he praises Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al Zarqawi for reviving “the spirit of jihad,” and says that Abu Bakr al Baghdadi has done what no modern Muslim has been able to do – create an Islamic state.
“Yes we have it – a Caliphate upon the methodology of Prophethood,” he writes. “Never in my lifetime did I envisage seeing it, let alone live in it, but here I am relishing every moment and working hard to see it in Rome and beyond.”
Rumaysah was one of Anjem Choudary’s most prominent followers and skipped bail despite being banned from leaving the UK.
A convert to Islam formerly known as Siddhartha Dhar, he encourages others to emigrate to the Islamic State and says that’s why he has written the booklet.
Giving practical advice on daily life in the “Dawla,” he says that you can eat everything from shwarma, sheesh kebab to “fruity cocktails” there, all of it halal!
He adds that the weather is exquisite and even gives advice on what kind of car or motorbike to buy.
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“As a cittizen of the Islamic State you are not just a resident of Raqqah or Fallujah you are part of a transnational empire that refuses to confine your identity to man-made borders.
“Nothing helps to explain this more than the annihilation of the border between Iraq and Syria in 2014. The bulldozing of this satanic boundary that had separated Muslims for so long was a picture perfect moment.”
Rumaysah goes onto praise the Islamic State’s education system and technological achievements (especially their media productions), and says you will have access to mobile phones,. tablets and the internet.
On the kind of people there he says: “If you thought London or New York was cosmopolitan then wait til you set foot in the Islamic State because it screams diversity.
“In my short time here I have met people from every walk of life, proof that the Caliphate’s pulling power is strong and tenacious. The country has also been a magnet for talent. It has been successful in recruiting skilled professionals that are crucial for state building.”
But then Rumaysah diverts away from the jolly and upbeat tone of the booklet with his final paragraph:
“So in finishing, as the Islamic State edges closer and closer to Damascus and Baghdad, as a lion stalks its prey, look closely at how defeat eats away at the loser, because these two cities are just appetisers.
“When we descend on the streets of London, Paris and Washington the taste will be far bitterer, because not only will we spill your blood, but we will also demolish your statues, erase your history, and most painfully, convert your children who will then go onto champion our name and curse their forefathers.”
