Today it's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Operation Jihadi Bride by John Carney with Clifford Thurlow.
John Carney is an Ex-British army soldier. He led the efforts of rescue of various women and their children from the ISIS Caliphate. His name is on the ISIS-Death list, and to protect his identity, his name and other names have been changed in the book. He has operated a multi-million pound private security set up by Colonel Tim Spicer. He has operated a close protection service in Iraq since 2011.
Co-writer Clifford Thurlow's recent books as a ghostwriter include the acclaimed Iraq memoir Making a Killing, the inside story of a hired gun in Iraq, and Escape from Baghdad with Captain James Ashcroft. He has also written Fatwa Living with a Death Threat, for Jacky Trevane, which went on to sell 500,000 copies.
Follow John Carney on Twitter, on Goodreads, Buy Operation Jihadi Bride
Follow @ThurlowClifford on Twitter, Clifford Thurlow on Goodreads, on Amazon, Visit cliffordthurlow.com
About the book
Would you turn your back on a teenage Jihadi bride and her innocent children?
‘Jihad isn’t a war. It’s an objective. An aberration. If there are young women with children, lost boys… If they are trapped in that hell and we can get them out, don’t we have a duty to do so? Every person we can bring back is living proof that Islamic State is a failure.
Ex-British Army Soldier, John Carney, ran a close protection operation in Iraq for oil executives when he was asked by the family of a young Dutch woman to extract her from the collapsing Islamic State in Syria. Hearing first-hand of the shocking living hell of tricked naive young girls, many from the West, trapped, sexually abused and enslaved by ISIS, he knew only one thing – he had to get them out
Armed with AK-47s and 9mm Glocks, he launched a daring, dangerous and deadly operation to free as many as he could. With a small band of committed Kurdish freedom fighters, backed by humanitarian NGOs, and feeding intel to MI6, Carney and his men went behind enemy lines in the heart of the Syrian lead storm, risking their lives to deliver the women and their children to the authorities, to de-radicalization programmes and fair trials.
Gripping, shocking and thought-provoking, ‘Operation Jihadi Bride’ takes the complex issue of the Jihadi Brides head-on – a vital read for our troubled times.
I can see this being a controversial read given the subject matter. It's a topic that divides opinions. Do we have a moral obligation to save Jihadi Brides and their children, especially if their origin country is our own? Is the risk of them continuing on in their newly acquired holy task greater than showing them some humanity?
Let's get one thing clear. These are impressionable often vulnerable and young victims of radicalisation. They are groomed to feel as if they are part of something bigger, something sacred and all in the name of Allah. They are brainwashed into leaving family and friends. It's no different than a religious cult, but with more devastating consequences.
These girls and young women are drawn in with fantasy scenarios and pictures of appealing men - only to be confronted with living hell in reality. Rape, gang-rapes, held prisoner and forced to integrate into a culture that treats women like property to be hidden and discarded when no longer useful. Innocent children become part of this vicious cycle and are new recruits for the Jihadi.
What should we do? Leave them to rot and let them be drawn deeper into the well of hate or give them a second chance?
Carney comprehends that pretending they don't exist is not a solution. Instead we need to be addressing the reasons they are vulnerable to radicalisation and stepping in when we recognise it.
It's an interesting read, especially because this is a problem the Western world hasn't got a grip on, and because it is a divisive topic. Although it has the vibe of a story told in a battle voice narrative it is also infused with a strong sense of determination and hope.
Buy Operation Jihadi Bride at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Monoray; pub date 11 July 2019. Buy at Amazon com.
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